Human Growth and Development / Unit 15 HGD 2131 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Memory Systems in Late Life
The idea
Memory systems age differently. Short-term memory declines subtly, more noticeably in the sixties and after seventy; working memory, effortful manipulation, drops more. Implicit memory, unconscious and procedural, such as riding a bicycle, is well preserved. Semantic memory, facts and vocabulary, stays intact, overlapping with crystallized intelligence. Episodic memory, memory for events, shows the most common declines.
In practice
An eighty-year-old who rides a bike without thinking and knows every capital city, but forgets what she did last Tuesday.
Where people slip
The misconception is that memory declines across the board with age. Implicit and semantic memory hold; episodic and working memory decline. Exam items describe a memory task and ask whether it holds up: skills and facts do, recent events and juggling information less so.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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